|
Waterways |
|
| The Kennet and Avon Canal The Kennel and Avon Canal flows through the middle of Newbury and the Town owes much of its nineteenth century prosperity to the trade it created. The canal joins London via the river Thames at Reading to the Avon at Bath and thence to the port of Bristol. As early as 1606 a bill was passed to construct a canal. There were many other abortive attempts and it was not until an Act of 1715 that parts of the canal were started in particular Reading to Newbury. The construction of the Newbury to Bath section started in 1796 under an act of Parliament passed in 1794. It opened to Kintbury with a ceremonial barge on 12th June 1797 and to Great Bedwyn on 2nd July 1799. The whole canal was complete in 1810. |
|
| Like the Channel Tunnel, the costs of the canal were grossly underestimated and construction took a lot longer than expected. Also like the tunnel the canal proved valuable and made profits up to the coming of the railway in 1847 when the canal was bought by the Great Western Railway who had a vested interest in its decline. By 1877 the canal was making a loss and by 1900 through traffic had ceased and various parts fell into disuse. |  |
| In the Second World War the canal was seen as an ante-tank obstacle in the event of an invasion and there are still reminders of the war in the form of pill boxes along its length. Shortly after the railways were nationalised in 1947 the canal came under the control of the Docks and Inland Waterways Executive - part of the British Transport Commission. In 1946 the Inland Waterways Association was formed by people interested in campaigning for the restoration of canals. Very little maintenance was undertaken by the Executive. Indeed, various attempts were made to close the canal. Many parts of it were closed as unsafe. Closure was vigorously opposed, particularly by John Gould who ran barges. He has now received the MBE for his efforts towards the restoration of the canal. At a meeting in 1949 a local canal association was formed at Newbury. This spread with Branches along the waterway. The association became a properly constituted trust in 1961 and saw the decision to restore and reopen the canal. This work was progressed by the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust and some of the labour was voluntary. It was not until 1970 and better economic times that work started in earnest and the project became popular. The complete length of the canal was opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth in 1993. It is now in good condition and has attracted £25M of Lottery money for its further restoration and development. The canal now carries heavy holiday traffic particularly in the summer. It carries some goods traffic and cannot seriously compete with road and rail. Once a year there is a crafty craft race from Hungerford to Newbury when teams build "exotic" craft to race. At the finish there is a fair and side shows in Victoria Park. At Easter there is the Devizes to Westminster race. For a detailed history see "The Kennet & Avon Canal" by Kenneth R. Clew. |
|
